Responses (106)

aeon missing words is another recurring problem of mine and I know I've typed the word in but after going back to the article some words are missing. I really don't know what happened. Sometimes I've proofread it already but the posted article would have some wrong spellings or missing words. I don't subject my work in any grammar checking software or proof reading software because I tried using several before and the results are crap. If someone could recommend a good grammar checker or proofreading software it would be much appreciated .

This happens to me frequently. I relate with finding missing words. It all happens so fast. You're churning out writing and then when you go read it, you find blocks of words. Sometimes even missing phrases. It really is just part of the writing process. Better edit it before submission.

Yes I agree with you. Sometimes once we typed it we think the words of what we want to say to write it down, and sometimes we thought we already typed it but then we realised we missed some details on it. So its really best to checked it first, do some run through before we submit our answers and replies.

I totally agree with that. I honestly forget sometimes correct spelling of words that I thought I already knew it, so using google, grammar checker are really my saviour. And what s best by using this, it helps me too on how to pronounce it correct, right meaning of it and on how I can use it in a sentence in a proper way.

I also experience such stressful problems when I'm writing an article or anything in particular. I thought that everything I've been thinking in my mind were encoded perfectly, however whenever I proofread I can see a lot of missing words and worse I'll forget the missing words because I was thinking too fast. I guess this problem occurs because when we are typing we are also thinking and sometimes we are thinking too fast to the point that we are not paying attention to what we are typing.

Well, that's normal. Don't be too hard on yourself. It's a necessary process of writing. Drafts are made to be edited. They're our starting points so that we can get all the jumbled mess of our ideas out before sorting them later.

I think the most common error is capitalization of the first letter in a sentence. You really have to go back and correct it. You might have written many sentences already and when you edit it there are errors like this.

So I'm taking a graduate level story writing class this semester, and I'm learning a ton about my writing. In the past, when it's come to script writing, my writing has been very restrained. I've tended to hold myself back on what I write, because when it comes to shooting a film based on what I write, I have limited resources. I have limited talent, limited gear, a limited budget, so I never wrote anything wild and crazy.

This class has allowed me to open the floodgates to my imagination, and I've really enjoyed writing whatever I want without any restraints, which has led to one of my current pitfalls: I think my ideas are too wild at the moment. Our last short story, which had to be a minimum of 1,000 words, needed to revolve around the idea of something that was prohibited. Our protagonist needed to do or obtain something that was prohibited to them and there needed to be consequences.

I chose to write my story about an android who was programmed to do a specific set of tasks every day. But as it experienced different interactions, it began to develop sentience. So the prohibition in this case was that the protagonist was not allowed to be self-aware, and as a result, had to be decommissioned. I wanted to make it a sort of parallel to our world, where the android realized that the humans who worked around him lived their lives in dull routines day in and day out, and that the world wasn't necessarily a great place, so he chose to decommission himself, reverting himself back to his non-sentient self.

Lots of stuff, not enough development is my problem. My current fix is to focus on easier topics to improve my writing before jumping into wild, philosophical storylines.

TheArticulate,
You said you have now opened "the floodgates" to your imagination--I love that and am happy for you. I hope that i do that for my students when I teach my literature courses! I really like your storyline here! Keep writing! I think it is wonderful to get formal training in your craft and to keep working on your own craft in your own ways as well. Be confident in your work--the pitfalls are always gonna be there, but, remember--with great risks come great rewards!

Wow! Was that story about the android completely your own idea? If so I have to say that I'm really quite impressed. That is a great original idea, and we definitely need more like that in the film industry. Everything popular these days is just a bunch of reboots and sequels that are so severely lacking in originality. I think it's fantastic when you can combine science-fiction with philosophical ideas, along the lines of a lot of Isaac Asimov's work. I would definitely like to see more of that.

I'm sorry, I would have responded to your comment earlier, but I must have missed it.

Yes, the premise of my story was own original idea. At least, I'm pretty sure it was. There could always be the chance that I've read or watched something with a similar plot at some point in my life and my mind returned to it for the assignment.

I try and tackle each assignment from as unique a perspective as I can. My professor gives us a theme and some slight parameters for each of our assignments, like a journey story, the prohibition story, a bully story, etc. and I'm forcing myself to write in completely different styles or genres each time. So far I've tried my hand at sci-fi, action, crime/drama, and most recently a superhero/comedy story.

Me too. I found it so cool and interesting. I guess it's the pitfalls of living in the modern era. Pretty much anything and everything has been done before. The only originality left is who executed the idea better.

Because in all forms of art, execution is the key to mastery. Let's not forget that writing has no master. It only has a handful of people who came closest to what we'd call master writers.

That's amazing! I like how you've gone over and under so fast. It's often the challenge with writing stuff. Either we're overdoing things or not doing enough. So now we're made to practice balance in our writing.

The good thing about this is you'll learn from your experience. Trust in your ability to write and let go of your fears. Because at the end of the day, all you'll really need is time and good editing.

I tend to type very quickly and very often I make punctuation errors. I have to admit that I make grammatical mistakes at times too. For this reason, I am now using spell checkers and these have helped me a lot. Sometimes I have someone to review my content/articles before I submit them. I have to admit that ever since I started writing my written communication skills have drastically improved.

I do the exact same thing. Sometimes I'll reread my emails or my writing to check for errors and still miss some. For my writing class, I usually have someone I know proof read my work. I think a second set of eyes is great to catch mistakes in most cases.

Indeed. It's very easy to become blind to your own mistakes, especially in regards to word flow. Typos and such can be caught with spell checkers quite easily, but simply bad flowing text requires someone else than the writer themselves to be spotted.

We have the same way of typing. I am also very quick whenever I do my articles. Sometimes I get to have misspelled words. One of my frequent mistakes here is instead of putting an "i", I sometimes unnoticeably put "o" since in keyboard, the letters are beside each other. Like instead of putting, I usually end up typing puttong.
With today's updated software, like in Microsoft Word, spell checkers are very accessible. Some software have built in spell checkers for us to be convenient in writing our compositions. This is the reason why I use to put my articles first in a word document before publishing them to my blog.

Same here. Typing fast is great for writing ideas. But its setback is the frequent typographical errors. But it's okay. This is much easier to fix compared to story issues. Those will entail a complete rewrite if it became too problematic.

Just like me too I type it quickly once I got something in my mind. I'm thankful too because because it makes easy for us to whenever we write a wrong spelling, wrong punctuations, it will highlight or a red light will come up on that error word showing that we got it wrong so we fix it right away And these what usually happens to me .

We have come to see that nobody is above mistake and that is the same thing that goes on in writing. One key way of doing the best to ensure what I write is amazing is by reading it again after I've written them. I also try to get one of my friends to read that and make extra efforts in doing the corrections.

So, the editing part is core of what I do and in as much as I try to do those corrections, I might say that it must be better than what it was before.

Yeah that's right, read it again to find the possible error, much better if you read it again every after one sentence, and then after you finish your article read it again, and aside from that, I also using some grammar checker just to make it sure that there's nothing wrong with my grammar, since English is not my primary language.

Another way to edit better is to leave it alone for a few days. This works really well for long essays and novels. Because if we try to edit immediately after having just finished writing it, we may not notice things that are obviously wrong.

Either we're too tired to properly edit the work or too attached to our writing. Giving ourselves a bit of distance can make possible improvements obvious after some time off.

My common mistake in writing is the use of will and would versus shall and should. But I understand that those are just minor grammar mistakes. What worries me is my small vocabulary that I tend to repeat the same words. It is not pleasant to read an article that has repeated words most of the time. That clearly shows that I need to brush up on the thesaurus to learn the proper synonyms of words that are on my head so I will have an alternative term to use.

You have a point. Even minor mistakes can be distracting for readers. So the best way to avoid this is to learn the right choice of words. I've also been guilty of this. The fact that we often use them in sentences makes it hard for readers who know correct grammar.

Probably typos, heh. It's very hard to fix everything even after you do machine-assisted proofreading, because it's so easy to become blind to your own errors, especially when writing longer texts, so it's essential to have someone else use a second round of proofreading so that you'll manage to catch the final errors in your writing.

SiamSEO,
I am right there with you with the typos. I have no idea why I make so many of them after having been typing for about thirty years now, but i always do. I have already, just in what I have written here in this second sentence, have had to correct my typing about ten times, lol. It's a ridiculous affliction, to be sure. You hit the nail right on the head when you mentioned that is is easy for us to "become blind" to our own errors; I think they are like personality traits almost--everyone has different errors that they tend to make. At least we can be more self-aware in our editing and try our best to fix these things before anyone else sees our mistakes!

Yeah, the typos. It's really hard to avoid that error, specially if we type to fast and just depends on our fingers, but it's alright, It's just a common mistakes, unless there's another meaning of that word after the typo.

It's really part of writing. We can't avoid spelling errors. Especially, if we're writing a very long book. Imagine how difficult it used to be for those who used typewriters. They had to manually retype the pages until there were no errors.

Typos are definitely something that a lot of people will have problems with especially when you are typing online. Plus, I type so fast that the chances of me making some typos is increased massively. To get around this, I make sure that I use Grammarly so that it can help identify any typos that I make whilst typing online.

I also use Grammarly to help me improve my writing. I noticed that I have many mistakes in my grammar once Grammarly is installed on my PC. The worst thing is that I thought my grammar was okay before using it. Bit by bit, I'm learning from Grammarly and I feel like my English skills improved significantly.

It's definitely helped me with tricky word choices. Like how "every day" and "everyday" are supposed to be used. I didn't know how often I mistook one for the other. So I'm thankful for the invention of Grammarly.

I hope they could make the premium version cheaper, though. It's too pricey for me and I would love to experience the additional features that are only available for their paid users. It must be nice to have those grammar corrections/suggestions especially for non-native English persons like me.

Me too. I'm also interested to know how well the special features work. Like the suggestions for style usage. I'm thinking the advanced features will benefit those who write the most. Like content writers and authors.

It seems that Grammarly is a staple among writers. It's been really helpful with improving the grammar of all our works. This makes it easier for us to edit our content since most common errors are easily detected.

It's the most common error there is to writing. Typographical errors makes the work seem less professional. So definitely have someone take care of this. I'm lucky to have some friends who are generous with proofreading. You can never go wrong with another set of eyes.

I tend to write very long sentences when I'm kind of tired and just write whatever is on my mind, which makes the thought too complicated to follow and tedious to read, just like this sentence I'm typing right now, LOL. This usually happens when I'm tired, so I take a break every once in a while when I notice this.

Haha, don't worry, you are not alone! I tend to do the same thing. I have noticed many times that my sentences can go on forever when they shouldn't be. This makes reading them a bit confusing. It's a bad habit and I'm trying my best to fix it

I've been there. It's like you're already too exhausted to even write a decent sentence. That's one thing to note. We should be aware of our physical limits. As even our mental capacity needs rest in order to function at its optimal level again.

I don't really have many issues when it comes to spelling even though that English is not my first language. Perhaps my most common mistakes would be related to grammar and portraying my thoughts. Sometimes I feel like I write too complicated sentences when I could say the same thing much simpler.

How am I trying to fix it? Well, with practice. I write every single day and over the last year I have noticed a huge improvement.

It is all about practising about it and hope that it will get better as you write. The coming of smartphones with some correction tool has made it easier not to make spelling mistakes. So, it is all about ensuring that you don't make the mistake with the sentence structure. To me, I have that feeling that some of these rules that guide language should be lowered to allow people express themselves in a better way.

Tronia,
as you mentioned, practice is the only way to get better at anything! We have to modulate our sentence structures, of course, so that our writing does not sound monotone or droning. There 5 main ways to combine or construct sentences which I teach to my English students. I think Faulkner, in his short story, "A Rose For Emily", wrote a sentence that was 126 words long using dynamic sentence structures and grammar and punctuation acrobatics. I found a link to give to you to be a quick guide to these issues--not to condescend you, mind you, but if it helps, use it, right? https://www.wyzant.com/resources/lessons/english/esl/combining-sentences

Yeah me too, instead of thinking about the word its easy to say "same thing, something like that, and the most common word for me is, you know" It's funny but really hard to think specially when you're under pressure specially if in the verbal conversation.

Whenever I'm writing im always concerned about the typos and punctuations which I really hate. Some people doesn't have any problems with punctuations but not me, I'm always concerned about it because it takes up a third of my editing time.

I was also like that when I started writing articles. A writer friend advised me to just write and focus on the flow of the story or topic that I was writing. If I would be conscious of the typographical errors and also of grammatical errors, my concentration in writing will be affected. And it was a good advice because I was writing good blogs after that. I just write what's on my head and when I am done writing, that's the time to check on the errors.

Another problem I'm having if I'm using a tablet or smartphone and I'm writing is the autocorrect function sometimes the word I'm typing is suddenly replaced by another word which is not appropriate, usually I only notice this automatic wrong correction when Im finished writing and I'm presently editing the piece. I really don't know why the autocorrect function is always doing the wrong correction.

Kakashi,
I hear you on this issue. Autocorrect technology drives me nuts! You should be able to disable this if you want or set another default, but i know that lot of people do not choose to do so because, statistically, Autocorrect can really be helpful with a lot of its choices. That being said, when I know I am spelling a word correctly that it is not familiar with, and it keeps trying to change it or correct, I do get a bit frustrated, especially when I am texting on my phone and multi-tasking. It can only correct, or so-called "suggest", words that it "knows", and most writers have much more uncommon words in their vocabulary than a lot of Autocorrect technology can understand.

I don't intend to come off as arrogant by saying this, but I typically don't make many spelling/grammar errors in my writing. I think it is partly due to the fact that I've diligently practiced my writing skills for my entire life, and partly thanks to modern day auto-correct and spell check software.

I do have an interesting issue worth noting, though. Often times when I'm writing quickly, my brain will substitute similar sounding words with what I actually meant. For example, if I meant to write "I could do that", I might end up writing "I good do that".

I wonder if there is an actual term for it, perhaps something like dyslexia.

Recently I've been experiencing the same problem whenever I'm using were, wear, where, we're, when I read a finished piece I would see some mistakes in using these words more so when I've been writing for a long time.

I think that your issue in particular is a fairly common one. I grew up in the United States, where obviously English is the main language, and even though we learn it in school, many of my peers still make mistakes when it comes to words like their, they're, and there or where, wear, and were. Same thing with words like your and you're. It's not a big deal when we're just texting in casual conversation, but it's obviously unprofessional if they were to try and pass it off in an article or paper or something.

I think my common mistakes are in my grammar and words to use. I still doubt if what specific words should I put that will specify my true or express my deep thoughts because I am not sure if the words I used are acceptable/fit or not fit to my specific thoughts. I really need to practice more and need some advice from my loyal and trusted friends that are expert in writing. I think reading will also helps me to improve the words so that I can find new useful words I can include and also to explore more my vocabularies that I can used in my writings. There are still various things I should learn and enhance to be better in writing because now a days writing is essential most especially we are in modern and technology years and communication both writing and speaking are very important because all over the world English is the main language to use when communicating. It will help us understand and communicate with each other.

Sometimes when I'm writing a long article, some of the words get mixed up in my writing, for example this three words:. There,Theyre,Their and We're, Where,Wear. It's kind of funny but it happens a lot to me. Whenever this happens I stand up and watch TV or take a snack.

I'm also having a problem about that, that's why I'm still listening and watching some videos about the proper English grammar, Before, I don't see any problem about the difference between that words, but when I watch some videos I found out that it was really a big mistakes to compare that words.

I'm not a native English speaker so it's easy to commit S-V-A mistakes without even realizing it. I always need to proofread my articles to make sure that they're readable and have no grammatical lapses. It's easy to make such mistakes, though, when posting in forums because the main focus is sharing of ideas or knowledge. Almost all forums don't allow members to edit their past posts so we'll have to live with the mistakes, if any.

coolavendar,
Because I am a native English speaker, I did not even think about the difficulties with subject-verb agreement in our writing! I can tell, though, that subject verb agreement issues are common even in the SPEECH of many English-speaking Americans. Our education system, in my opinion, has been falling apart for decades now, and I do not think that as much attention is being put upon the skills of writing and reading anymore as it really needs to be! There are plenty of times when I would go back and read one of the posts I had just left and wish that I could edit it, but like you, I find that MOST forum sites don't give us that option, so we just have to live with our permanent embarrassment lol.

Missing words, sometimes I thought I already type all the words in my mind but when I started to back read, there're a lot of missing words, that's my common error, and during the English writings, the grammar, I admit that I need to learn more or study more about the English grammar even though I know it's not my primary language, It's still not excuse, specially in English writings.

aeon,
i can yell you from being an English professor for years that this is a very very common goal amongst my student writers! I am not sure if that makes you feel any better, but trust me--you are not alone in this issue. Everyone, at some point, has this issue, the left-out words, that is, and you have to do such a close proofread to pick up on these things, Getting the much needed distance and objectivity in regard to your work is the only way, I think, to truly solve this issue. I imagine this is even much tougher for someone with English as second language issues.

You're right, I really need to mark my errors. Thanks for that. I'm always listen to someone just to correct my mistakes, specially in English language, and specially to you, English professor. I feel better now knowing that I'm not alone in that mistakes.

aeon,
It's like I tell my students--why do you think that big rich publishing houses hire editors and pay them big money to EDIT the work of professional novelists and other writers--even people who write huge books, for a living, also need editors to help them see their own work in the proper perspective and objective light. The trick is, when you have to be your OWN editor, getting to your mistakes and catching them before someone else does, and this is not always a very easy task.

I'm absolutely guilty of that particular mistake of missing words in a sentence. I took out time to work towards discovering and correcting this issue and I found out that my problem is trying to write too fast that my brains works faster than my hands can catch up with when penning words down. So therefore, taking things slowly or on the average speed is the only way that I have improved in stopping making this error of missing words.

I also think about that, typing too fast, but actually, even in my hand writing, I always have that same mistake. so what I'm doing right now, aside for typing slowly, I need to read it again just to be sure.

Martinsx1,
I find that this is a common issue with writers who are under pressure trying to create content with the limited time which we have every day. I am always writing way too fast, I think, in order to write and also be a reflective and effective editor. I guess we have to learn how to pace ourselves while editing and while deciding about the quality versus the quantity of our content!

I have the same experience, missing words are one of my highest mistakes in writing. Also when using auto spell checker i tend to replace the words with a different word. This is really about being patient, sometime when you are on the peak of writing you tend to type fast...the problem is your brain tells you what to write but young fingers tend to do different. I know that i have to learn more when it comes to writing, so every experience is a tool for me.

No one is perfect when it comes to writing, one is definitely bound to make mistakes if not small at least a grammatical error or typographical error. Thanks to the inventors of grammarly, it saves me a lot stress on grammatical errors but my most commonly made errors is typographical errors especially when I'm typing too fast.

I would skip some words which I have already spoken in my mind but failed to type because I was writing too fast. This is why it's very important to read whatever you have written all over again because on the second reading, you are definitely going to find out these mistakes and have them corrected.

Martinsx1,
You are so right that there is no such thing as a perfect writer. I have to closely proofread everything I do, and I never produce a "perfect" draft, ever, on the first try. I have to get distance from my work, when I can, but when I am on deadline, and it is rapidly approaching, sometimes I do not have the option to do a proofread with proper distance and objectivity towards what I have written. I also have a lot of typos, from typing too fast, multi-tasking, and trying to get my goals accomplished in a certain time frame every day. You are so right--you almost always find something you have done incorrectly on the second go-round.

This is why it's not wise to judge someone's writing whenever one bumps into some errors in it. I have seen some people that are found of this particular act, always forming all knowing when they all have skeletons in their own cupboard with regards to errors in their own write ups.

I agree. I do not judge the writing of others unless I absolutely have to, such as when I am grading, which is part of my job. Even then, I am not so much judging as I am trying to help and to make helpful and useful suggestions, and then the students are aloud to attempt rewrites in order to achieve higher scores on their work. I have definitely seen this editing and revision process work with my students, and I stand by it. People who take pleasure in correcting others just to feel superior are sad and ridiculous I think.

I don't know if I would call it a common error. I have a problem of where to put my commas.Traditional there rules, which you can follow and you should be fine. However over the last few years, it depends on who you write for. The rules seem to have changed. I read an article in the Economist that suggested that you should never move a comma because you distort the writers voice. So confused! No proper writing rules anymore. It's hard to know what is expected.

jaymish3,
This is SO true! I was taught the traditional usage of the commas rules, and now I am an English teacher, and MLA and APA format have both changed several times over the last few decades. I try to teach my students the "safest" usage of punctuation, which means I teach it the old-fashioned way so that it is always technically correct. However, I have to make sure that I am constantly checking myself to make sure I am teaching the proper punctuation depending upon the format, content, class, audience, etc.

One of my long time problems would be typesetting whenever I finished arranging all the written words in a page and save it, then when I extract and open it in another device or after i upload it, it doesn't follow the saved document, usually the typeset piece gets all messed up. Then I would have to typeset it again.

Having line breaks is one recurring error that I've experienced when I was just starting to write, I really don't know why it keeps on happening, because I've used the right format and the saved article looks okay but after posting it, line breaks will appear.

Am good in writing some English, haha but my only problem is that i don't know how to use my both hands when am required to type fast. if i use both of them. later i will have to clear a lot of spelling mistakes.

I just finished researching for new ways to help me write better (spent 48 hours doing it) and I found and tested several remarkable sites and programs that can help me in creating fast and original content. I should have researched this year's ago but no regrets, I found what I was looking for at the end.

Good Writers sometimes experience writing blunders but oftentimes it happens to a lot of startup and midlevel writers. Most common among these writing mistakes are:

Kakashi,
This is really cool that you found these resources! Would you be willing to share the url addresses of some of the websites you found which you considered to be the most helpful? I tend to use the Owl Purdue website when I am teaching my courses. my main mistakes revolve around spelling, capitalization, and "left-out" words, I think, because I am always try to get my work done in such a fast and prompt manner. I need to remind myself to slow down and really edit closely for my most common mistakes.

I always have this error the one that I forgot to have a period. Then most of the time having wrong spelled word is on my sentences. It is hard to check it one by one especially when you are on pressure for your articles deadline.

MomoStarr16,
I think that is the commonest gripe hre in this forum--finding the time not to feel rushed and to edit properly and effectively while under the guns of the freelancer deadline schedule. I totally understand--I know I am intelligent, and that I am good with language, but I still make many common spelling and punctuation errors in my work due to always rushing to finish projects. I am constantly working on striking up a balance between my time management and the quality of my content!

Usually the errors that I encounter are redundant words. Words like the, are, is, a and an are some of my common redundant words in my compositions. Luckily, my published articles don't have redundant words yet. I edit my own articles before publishing to my blog site. Before publishing one, I see to it that I consider myself as a reader, read the whole composition for me to see if there are mistakes like grammar, redundant words and senseless ideas. I usually read my articles twice for me to assure that my composition is polished and error free.

Vinsanity,
I have a bit of a problem with this as well. For example, I definitely use the word definitely definitely way too much, lol. I sometimes do go to an online thesaurus, but I know that the only true way to really improve my vocabulary would be to find the time to read much more than I have been lately. I think that you also make a really great point in terms of editing out repetitive ideas! I did not even think of that, but that is a basic example of using good organizational techniques and outlines to keep like ideas together and to fully develop your discussions without mirroring the same ideas over and over for no significant reason.

One common mistake I sometimes make is not reading the final draft as a whole. I would only read the paragraph or sentence that I'm not comfortable with. Making the grammar of the sentence correct but the construction of the paragraph wrong.

I think using the same word too many times in a single paragraph. This sometimes happen to me, in writing long paragraphs, sometimes I use the same word thrice. For me using a word twice is okay but thrice is too much.

I would say that comma errors are the most common errors among my students in their writing. They get them confused with semicolons as well.
For example:
This is coordination:
I am writing in a forum, but I am also litening to the radio.
This is subordination (no comma)
I am writing about the forum because I am listneing to the radio.
And here, of course, is the semicolon:
I am writing in a forum; i am listening to the radio.
Ans then, you can mane a compound-complex sentence which does ALL THREE:

I am listening to the radio; while I am doing this, I am listenting to the radio, and I am constantly multi-tasking.

I try to tell my students that these different types of sentences, once you learn them, are like LEGOS that you can combine in an infinite number of ways!

You're right I've been recently studying how to properly use commas, colons and semicolons. Us writers sometimes tend to forget the simplest writing guidelines, I think it's because of the information overload were always experiencing. Also i restudied "Where,Were,
We're", which I don't really know why I have experiencing trouble with lately.